Digital Politics, Social Media, and Misinformation

L32 3381

Class information

Lecture

Monday and Wednesday
10:00am – 11:20am
Zoom link: See canvas

Instructor Information

Jacob M. Montgomery, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
Office: Seigle 285 (hahahah no I will be at the zoom link on Canvas and not in my office)
E-mail:
Office Hours: Wed. 1:30-3:30 and by appointment

Textbooks/Readings

Almost all of the required readings (and many of the optional readings) will be linked to from this document or provided on Canvas. Some links to academic papers may only be accessible when you are using a VPN due to firewalls.

The required textbook is:

Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field and Prospects for Reform. Edited by Nathaniel Persily and Joshua Tucker.

Course description

The transformation of the media environment in the past decade has had a dramatic effect on the political process both here in the United States and around the world. In this class, we will survey recent work in the social sciences examining the role of digital technologies and social media in our politics, ranging from the good (e.g., more direct influence on media narratives) to the bad (e.g., the spread of misinformation).

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

  1. Understand how social connections and social media can be used to empower collective action.
  2. Articulate the tensions between the need for platforms to regulate harmful speech and behavior and the value of allowing unfiltered free expression.
  3. Understand how the technology of social media interacts with broader social and political forces in the United States and abroad.
  4. Explain the basic psychological mechanisms that makes individuals susceptible to misinformation and how those mechanisms intersect with new communication technology.
  5. Analytically apply these concepts to better understand how you personally interact with digital media and how it is shaping your own political world.
  6. Critically evaluate claims (and the evidence used to support those claims) about the effects of social media on democracy and politics.

Expectations and structure

  1. This class was specifically designed for the Zoom era of online learning. While this format is crappy for many things, it does facilitate bringing outside experts into the class. A centerpiece of the course, therefore, will be 16 visitors who will bring their expertise and experience to inform our discussion.

  2. This is a fairly reading-intensive class for undergraduates. Each class session will include (approximately) two academic papers/book chapters as well as some related news articles/podcasts/etc.1 Note that these will be real-world academic papers reflecting the cutting edge of research on this topic. This is me saying that some of the readings will be very hard. I do not expect you to understand all of the technical terms/discussions, but do expect you to understand: (a) the major claims made by the authors, (b) the evidence used to support those claims, and (c) how the paper fits into the broader themes of the class. I also expect you to bring questions about the mathy gobbldygook you don’t understand so we can talk through it during class. I anticipate that this will take you 6-9 hours of study/prep time per week.

  3. This class is designed to be discussion based and interactive. That is so much harder to do on Zoom than in person, and I get it. But I really need you to put in the effort, and to ensure that I will also ask you to do some “reactions” in advance of our class meeting. I will do my best to make things fun and engaging, but you’ve got to do your part by showing up prepared. If we all do our job, this will be awesome.

  4. While we will not be doing statistical analyses in this class, we will be reading many papers with statistics. PS 363 (or equivalent) is not required for this class, but it sure would be helpful. But you should anticipate that we will at least talk through the statistical results as a class for many of the readings. I do not expect you to undestand them without assistance.

Some help getting started with the reading

Academic articles can be confusing, especially papers with lot’s of statistics you don’t understand. If you are struggling, look at some guides such as “How to Read Political Science: A Guide in Four Steps” by Amanda Hoover Green or “How to Read a (Quantitative) Journal Article” by Greta Krippner.2

Here are a set of questions to think about as you read to help you get ready for class:

  1. What claim or argument are the authors trying to convince you is true/not true?
  2. Why would we ever doubt that this claim is true? Who are they arguing with? Why don’t we know this already?
  3. What is the mechanism they are suggesting? What is the social, technical, or psychological process that leads to their predicted outcome?
  4. What is the evidence they provide in support of their claim? Is it an experment? A survey? Did they scrape the Internet?
  5. Does this argument/finding support of contradict other readings? What connections can you draw between this article and the others?
  6. Were you convinced by this article that the claim is true?

Assistants to instructor

Dominique Lockett is assisting me in teaching this class. She is a graduate student concentrating in computational social science. Her primary role will be to make sure the class runs smoothly, take care of basic grading tasks, and be a resource for further questions. She will be working closely in conjunction with Professor Montgomery on all issues of grading. I encourage you to get to know the assistant and remind you to always be respectful and patient. I would prefer you to be rude to me than to my assistant.

Learning in the age of Covid-19

Some of you are in St. Louis and some of you are not. Some of you have easy access to library resources and some of you have very little. Some of you may be healthy, and some of you may be ill or have experienced illness in your family. This class is especially designed for this environment and I will try and be understanding and flexible. I ask you that you return the favor as I deal with learning new EdTech, balance my work and trying to help the first-grader, and you get the idea. But there are 40 of you and I do have to have some policies in place just to keep the trains running and myself sane. Read the rules for the class carefully so you understand where you have flexibility (and where you do not) and come to me as early as possible if you are having problems that may make meeting these targets difficult.

Requirements and Evaluation

Grading in this class will be based on the components described below. Late work will not be accepted without prior permission. With that said, the course is designed to be flexible to accomodate varying student needs in these difficult times.

If you get you get an
\(\ge\) 93 A
\(\ge\) 90 A-
\(\ge\) 87 B+
\(\ge\) 83 B
\(\ge\) 80 B-
\(\ge\) 77 C+
\(\ge\) 73 C
\(\ge\) 70 C-
\(\ge\) 67 D+
\(\ge\) 63 D
\(\ge\) 60 D-
\(<\) 60 Fail
Components of the grade
In-class participation (10%)

Assessment of class contribution will be based on participation in discussion of readings. Class contributions will be assessed based on quality, not quantity. Quality participation includes substance, demonstrated knowledge of reading material, professionalism, and respect to other students. If you don’t talk for a large number of classes, that will inevitably lead to a failing grade for this component. But if you are a shy person, remember that participation grades will be based on the quality of your participation and not the quantity. Take the opportunity to think about he materials in advance and plan something to say.

It is perfectly acceptable to disagree with each other, and I especially encourage you to disagree with me. But always try and explain the evidence you are using to support your claim. With that said, uncivil or disrespectful communication will not be tolerated.

We will drop your lowest grades for three (3) class sessions. However, I strongly encourage you to attend each class session.

Pre-class assignments (10%)

To help keep the class interesting, for most sessions I will ask you to complete small tasks in advance of each class. Usually this will be to add a new question or idea to a list for the class to cover when it meets. But it may involve making a meme related to our topic of discussion, finding examples of social media posts that reflect the topic, playing a game related to the topic, etc.

We will drop the grades for the four (4) lowest grades for pre-class assignments.

Discussion co-leader (15%)

Three times during the semester you will serve as a co-leader of the class along with me. This means that you will need to be especially attentive to the readings, help me manage the chat, give your best opinions when I ask questions, and generally help make the class run smoother. For classes with visitors, you will also be the point person for collecting questions from the class (in advance and from the chat box) to ask our guests.

Going deeper (20% - 10% each)

Twice during the semester you will take on one of the additional assignments and write a response paper. Usually this will be two papers or two book chapters. Often there will be a theme or an inherent disagreement in the readings.3 These extra readings should be done in addition to the main readings for that week and may not be for a class session here you are a discussion co-leader. These response papers must be turned in to me via Slack by 10pm the day before the class discussion. You will lose 10% of your grade for every day it is late after that.

Your assignment will be to write a short response paper (no more than 1000 words, excluding ciations) in double-spaced 12-point font. You can use endnotes or footnotes of any kind, as long as you cite.

This should be an analytical response, where you take a position and support your claim using specific evidence from the readings (or from other sources). You might, for instance, discuss why you found the evidence in one paper more convincing than another. You might apply the theory described to a new example or explain why it won’t hold up for some other social media platform.4 It can be anything you want, so long as you make an argument and support it with evidence.

No more than one page of this response should summarize the papers or it will be returned for revision without a grade. Time permitting, you will also be asked to provide a short discussion (about 5 minutes) explaining the readings as well as your response during class.

Magnify project/Respone paper (15%)

In Class 4 I will introduce you to the Magnify social media platform designed to help groups use the power of social media to foster civic engagement. You will choose choose a project and use Magnify (and/or other social media) to engage in civic activity and recruit your peers to your cause. Attend a city council meeting, support a candidate for St. Louis Mayor, raise money for a cause, or get that ugly pothole filled on your street. You must achieve “Wizard” status by the end of the project period (10%). You must also provide me with a two page (no more than 600 words) narrative describing your project and how the strategies you used to foster engagement related to the concepts we have covered in class (5%).5

In addition:

  • 1% will be given to the student with the most points on magnify at the end of the semester. (The start of class on May 3)
  • I will draw, at random, from the top 50% of students for magnify points who will receive a 1% bonus on their final grade.
Public Editor project/Response paper (10%)

For this project, you are going to try and be a content moderator and evaluate the veracity of news content.

  • Go to https://www.publiceditor.io/ and register.
  • Complete at least five tasks as a specialist for under four different specialist categories. You may want to do more to help you find a good idea for your response paper.
  • Write a two page (no more than 600 words) response paper to your experience as a coder. Explain how this experience relates to the readings (be sure to cite!).

Research design memo (20%)

Imagine you work at a social media company and have been asked to propose a change to the policies to improve democratic outcomes. Your assignment is to write a 1,200-1,500 word (excluding references) memo that achieves the following goals:

  1. It should articulate a problem. What ar we trying to fix?
  2. It should cite the relevant literature (from the class reading and beyond) explaining what effect the proposed change should have on specific outcomes and why. Convince your boss that this might work based on previous research.
  3. It should explain how the change will be evaluated. That is, what research design will we use to ensure that the change has the intended effect?

A couple of things to think about if you are struggling:

  • Articulate a problem that you care about and experience/observe online. Stick to political science issues to the extent possible but it’s not a hard rule. Then think about how the ideas we have discussed in this class point towards a potential solution.
  • Social science research focuses on very few platforms because of data limitations. But here you can imagine you are an insider. Just assume you have access to all the data you want for any platform you want.
  • This doesn’t have to be very original. Try and think what would theory XXX say about platform YYYY. Or how intervention ZZZ could be modified to address problem QQQ.
  • Model the research design on the papers we have read for the class. When in doubt, stick to an experiment (they are easiest to describe and justify).
  • Be sure to run your idea by me early in the writing process! I have office hours for a reason.

We will discuss a selection of your ideas as a class in our final session.

Extra credit

No adjustments will be made to final grades under any circumstances. Students will have the opportunity to earn extra credit over the course of the semester to provide an extra cushion in case of a malfunctioning computer, or unusual anxiety during due to the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, an attack by rogue dementors, the sudden death of the Headmaster, or the return of You Know Who.

  • As noted above, there are two opportunities for extra credit through the Magnify project.
  • Students can also increase their final grade 1% by completing their official online course evaluations for both Professor Montgomery and assistants to the instructor for their lab.

Class policies

Class organization/software

This class will be taught exclusively online via Zoom and will be synchronous. All class sessions will be recorded and available via Canvas. But this is a discussion based class and your attendance and participation are part of your grade. If you are in a location where you are comfortable turning on your camera, I encourage you to do so. This will make the class more enjoyable for everyone. Please also be sure that you find a location with a reliable Internet connection.

Class communications

While students are free to email me, my inbox is a trainwreck. All class communications will take place over Slack. You must sign up for Slack and join the (digitalpoliti-4x26202.slack.com) workspace. You should only email me if it is something very confidential that you do not trust to Slack’s privacy policies. If you have questions about assignments, I particularly encourage you to post it to #class-questions since it is very likely that other students will have the same question and it is convenient for me to answer where everyone can see.

All class discussions will also take place over slack. For many classes you will be expected to post questions or examples to a specific channel. You may also be asked to contribute to or help edit a post.

Grade Appeals

All grading appeals should come to me and not to the assistant.

If you wish to appeal the grading of an assignment, you must inform either me or an assistant to the instructor within 72 hours of the time when the graded assignment is returned to the class. Assignments returned on Thursday or Friday must be returned by Noon on the following Monday. You must provide the orginal assignment as well as an explanation of why your assignment deserves additional credit.

Stay on target

A great deal of research has shown than student learning is significantly harmed when students are multi-tasking. I know it’s hard, but please try and focus on the class during class time and refrain from shopping, watching sports, finding new cat videos, perfecting the latest TikTok dance, chatting, reading news, creating shady online disinformation operations, and other young people activities.

Academic Honesty

Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. I strongly encourage you to review the University’s policies regarding academic honesty, which you can read at: http://www.wustl.edu/policies/undergraduate-academic-integrity.html.

In general, if you have any question, please feel free to ask Professor Montgomery. It is much easier to answer questions than to fill out all fo the paperwork for an academic integrity violation.

  • *Do NOT copy and paste content unless you are citing and include quotations.
  • When in doubt, include the appropriate citattion.
  • It woudl be much better to get a zero on an assignment than to violate these rules. Don’t do it.

All cases of cheating or plagiarism will be referred to Washington University’s Committee on Academic Integrity. If the Committee on Academic Integrity finds a student guilty of cheating, then the penalty will be (without exception) automatic failure of the course.

Students with disabilities

Students with disabilities enrolled in this course who may need disability-related classroom accommodations are encouraged to make an appointment to see me before the end of the second week of the semester. All conversations will remain confidential.

Religious observances

Some students may wish to take part in religious observances that occur during this semester. If you have a religious observance that conflicts with your participation in the course, please meet with me before the end of the second week of the semester to discuss accommodations.

Accommodations based upon sexual assault

The University is committed to offering reasonable academic accommodations to students who are victims of sexual assault. Students are eligible for accommodation regardless of whether they seek criminal or disciplinary action. Depending on the specific nature of the allegation, such measures may include but are not limited to: implementation of a no-contact order, course/classroom assignment changes, and other academic support services and accommodations. If you need to request such accommodations, please direct your request to Kim Webb (), Director of the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center. Ms. Webb is a confidential resource; however, requests for accommodations will be shared with the appropriate University administration and faculty. The University will maintain as confidential any accommodations or protective measures provided to an individual student so long as it does not impair the ability to provide such measures.

If a student comes to me to discuss or disclose an instance of sexual assault, sex discrimination, sexual harassment, dating violence, domestic violence or stalking, or if I otherwise observe or become aware of such an allegation, I will keep the information as private as I can, but as a faculty member of Washington University, I am required to immediately report it to my Department Chair or Dean or directly to the University’s Title IX Coordinator. If you would like to speak with the Title IX Coordinator directly, Ms. Jessica Kennedy can be reached at (314) 935-3118, , or by visiting her office in the Women’s Building. Additionally, you can report incidents or complaints to Tamara King, Associate Dean for Students and Director of Student Conduct, or by contacting WUPD at (314) 935-5555 or your local law enforcement agency.

You can also speak confidentially and learn more about available resources at the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center by calling (314) 935-8761.

Schedule

NOTE: Below is a schedule of assignments. You should check Canvas before each class session for any pre-class assignments. Students are responsible for checking Canvas in advance of each class session as the tasks listed below are preliminary and may be adjusted based on student feedback.

  1. January 25: Introductions and dramatic reading of the syllabus
    • Required Readings
    • Pre-class assignment:
      • Join the course Slack workspace using the link on Canvas.
      • Complete the class survey linked to on Canvas.
  1. January 27: The social dilemma
  1. February 1: Social media for social good


  1. February 3: Dr. Betsy Sinclair. Professor of Political Science. Washington University in St. Louis. Co-founder of Magnify Your Voice.
    • Required Readings/Watching
      • The Social Citizen: Peer Networks and Political Behavior. 2012. Betsy Sinclair. (Chapters 1 & 3)
      • Watch this video on Magnify
    • Going deeper:
      • The Social Citizen: Peer Networks and Political Behavior. 2012. Betsy Sinclair. (Chapters 2 & 4)
    • Pre-class assignment:
      • Follow the instructions posted on Canvas to create your own Magnify account and look through the kinds of projects other users have started.
      • Think of at least two civic activities you would like to get involved in. Be ready to ask Prof. Sinclair about your favorite idea.
      • Add a to the list of questions for our guest to the pinned Slack post for this class. Be sure to have your name next to your question to receive credit. You are specifically looking for ideas about how you can connect ideas from your readings to strategies you will use on magnify (e.g., comparing responsivness of close social ties versus distant social ties).
    • Project note: This marks the start of the Magnify project (see description above). The project is due March 9. However, the extra credit contest will continue until the end of the semester.


  1. February 8: Hashtag activism

    • Required Readings/Watching
    • Going deeper:
      • #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice. 2020. Sarah J. Jackson, Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucaul Welles. (Chapters 2 & 3)
      • #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice. 2020. Sarah J. Jackson, Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucaul Welles. (Chapters 4 & 5)
      • #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice. 2020. Sarah J. Jackson, Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucaul Welles. (Chapters 6). (Should be paired with next article.)
      • White folks’ work: digital allyship praxis in the #BlackLivesMatter movement. 2019. Meredith D. Clark. Social Movement Studies. (Should be paired with the previous article).
    • Pre-class assignment:
      • Add a discussion question to the pinned Slack post for this class. Be sure to have your name next to your question to receive credit.


  1. February 10: Social media and protests/social movements abroad


  1. February 15: Online Activism. Dr. Deen Freelon. Associate Professor, Hussman School of Journalism and Media, UNC-Chapel Hill.


  1. Feb 17: Media bubbles and polarization. Dr. Pablo Barberá. Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International relations, University of Sourthern California. Research Scientist, Facebook.


  1. Feb 22: Elites and campaigns: Elias Duncan. Digital Director, Ossof for Senate.


  1. Feb 24: New media and old media. David Ingram. Technology Reporter, NBC News.


  1. March 1: Advertising. Laura Edelson. Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science and Engineering, Online Political Ads Transparency Project, New York University.

  1. March 3. No Class (wellness day)

  1. March 8: Social media in a comparative perspective. Dr. Taishi Muraoko. Postdoctoral Fellow, Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, Washington University in St. Louis.


  1. March 10: Protecting the feed. Dr. Adriana Crespo Tenorio. Research Scientist, Facebook.

  1. March 15. Rumors and conspiracies. Dr. Adam Berinsky. Mitsui Professor of Political Science, MIT. Director of the MIT Political Experiments Research Lab.


  1. March 17: Hate speech. Dr. Alexandra Siegel. Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder. Nonresident fellow at Brookings.

  1. March 22: Censorship. Dr. Jennifer Pan. Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Stanford University.


  1. March 24: The law and social media. Prof. Lisa Hoppenjans. Assistant Professor of Practice and Director, First Amendment Clinic, School of Law, Washington University in St. Louis.



  1. March 29: Elite-driven misinformation and propaganda.

  1. March 31: Network information loss. Dr. Taylor Carlson, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis

https://theschurething.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/5-ways-to-overcome-us-vs-them/

  1. April 5: Algorithms

https://theschurething.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/5-ways-to-overcome-us-vs-them/

  1. April 7: Identity and the origins of misperceptions

  1. April 12: Wellness day

  1. April 14: Motivated reasoning. Dr. Calvin Lai. Assistant Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis

  1. April 19: What can we do?

  1. April 19: State actors and information war. Dr. Darren Linvill. Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Clemson University.

  1. April 26: New frontiers of disinformation. Dr. Chrisopher Lucas. Assistant Professor, Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis.

  1. April 28: Democracy without facts? Brendan Nyhan. Professor, Department of Government, Dartmouth College.

  1. May 3. Select class presentations.

  1. Note that there is one day between Monday and Wednesday and more days between Wednesday and Monday. However, the same amount of reading is expected for each class session. You may, therefore, want to space out your reading to account for that. Just saying.↩︎

  2. My thanks to Brendan Nyhan for these references.↩︎

  3. You don’t have to write about the theme I identified. But if you are stuck, let me know and I’ll tell you what I was thinking.↩︎

  4. Don’t leave this till the last day. DM me in advance so we can brainstorm something if you are struggling.↩︎

  5. Your essay could explain how the strategies we discussed didn’t work in your case and discuss why that might have happend.↩︎